Model railroad coupler and related mechanism



Sept. 30, 1969 c. K. EDWARDS ETAL MODELRAILROAD COUPLER AND RELATED MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 13, 1967 FIG. 2.

741 .M ATTORNEY.

INVENTORS CLARENCE K. EDWARDS BY LAWRENCE D. EDWARDS III H P 0, 1969 c. K- EDWARDS ETAL 3,469,713

MODEL RAILROAD COUPLER AND RELATED MECHANISM Filed NOV. 13, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS' CLARENCE K. EDWARDS LAWRENCE 0. EDWARDS ATTORNEY.

p 0, 1969 c. K. EDWARDS ETAL 3,469,713

MODELRAILROAD COUPLER AND RELATED MECHANISM Filed NOV. 13, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 WWW ATTORNEY.

Sept. 30, 1969 c. K. EDWARDS ETAL MODEL RAILROAD COUPLER AND RELATED MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed NOV. 13, 1967 INVENTORS CLARENCE K. EDWARDS L WRENCE D EDWARDS ATTORNEY.

United States Patent O US. Cl. 213-75 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A coupler is provided for model railroad equipment which includes the features of automatic coupling, magnetic uncoupling and delayed uncoupling. When miniaturized, the coupler can be used with model railroad equipment of much smaller gauge than could ever before be provided with a coupler having the features referred to.

The coupler is characterized by a knuckle and an opposed lip, unitary, respectively, with separate, superposed, slotted shanks. A longitudinally extending compression spring is located within the shank slots and exerts an inward, lengthwise thrust on each of the shanks. Fixed abutment means at opposite sides of the shanks stand in opposed relation to abutment means on the respective shanks, so that, in response to the spring thrust, the knuckle and lip are yieldingly rocked, scissors fashion, toward one another, being arrested by direct interaction of the balanced shanks, to stand in potentially automatic coupling relation, or in coupled relation.

This invention relates to couplers for use in model railroad equipment. The scale of model railroad equipment has been reduced from time to time, the smallest scale of most presently conventional railroad equipment being known as HO gauge, and bearing a linear ratio to full size railroad equipment of 1 to 87. Reduction of scale is desirable so long as the equipment can be made sturdy and dependable and presents no insuperable obstacle to assembly. If the linear scale of the equipment is cut in half, for example, the scope of operations available on a table of given area is increased four-fold, the relationship being governed by an inverse square law. The amount of material per unit is reduced in even greater proportion, as are shipping charges and storage space requirements. These savings apply to the cars and track, not merely to the couplers.

It has been found, however, that when it is attempted to reduce the scale from 1/87 to 1/160, the automatic coupler is a bottleneck, because it is not feasible simply to reduce existing automatic couplers in the linear ratio required. A new automatic coupler, involving a new structure, and operating upon a new principle is needed, and it is provided by the present invention.

The new automatic coupler, made to appropriate scale, could be used in any known model railroad equipment. Only this novel coupler, so far as presently known, how ever, could be practically made small and compact enough for use on miniaturized equipment having a scale of the order of 1/ 160.

The difficulties involved in merely reducing the scale of existing automatic couplers are varied. In some the total coupler width and range of lateral movement cannot be reduced to a point which avoids conflicts, particularly on turns, between the couplers and the narrowly spaced wheels; in others particular parts would have to be too small or too delicate for practical manufacture and handling; in still others assembly of the tiny parts would present insuperable difiiculties.

It is an important object of the invention, not only to provide a coupler of smaller space requirements than any that has preceded it, but to provide in a novel way for many attractive features, some of which are present in one form or another in the most desirable larger couplers of the prior art. These features include (1) Automatic coupling;

(2) Security against accidental uncoupling on curves and at uncoupling stations;

(3) Provision at an uncoupling station of means for automatically freeing engaged couplers so they can be separated, but only if the train has just been backed or stopped in such a manner as to provide slack between adjacent cars;

(4) Provision at the uncoupling station for further moving the couplers in the uncoupling direction after the train has been pulled forward to separate the disengaged couplers, so that each coupler will insert a tongue or lip, incapable of hooking onto anything, into the mouth of the opposed coupler when the train is again backed, thus enabling the detached car to be pushed backward to a desired parking location and left there; and

(5) Provision for automatically restoring the parts of both separated couplers to a potentially automatic coupling condition when the separated car or cars have been parked and the couplers are not at the uncoupling station; i.e., to a condition in which recoupling will automatically occur upon the mere operation of the train to press the separated couplers against one another.

Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the drawing forming part of this specification,

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary view in side elevation, showing two model railroad cars joined to one another by identical couplers of a practical and advantageous form, which couplers embody features of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 but on a considerably larger scale than FIGURE 1, and with the car wheels and tracks omitted;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the novel coupler on a greatly enlarged scale;

FIGURE 4 is an exploded, perspective view showing all the parts of the coupler;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary view showing two couplers in normal positions and about to be coupled;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary view showing two connected couplers as they would appear when the train is being backed, the cover of the left coupler being omitted;

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6, but showing the couplers disengaged and ready for separation at an uncoupling station;

FIGURE 8 is a view similar to FIGURES 6 and 7, but showing the couplers as they would appear at the uncoupling station after separation of the couplers, with the lip of each coupler inserted in the mouth of the other;

FIGURE 9 is an exploded, inverted, fragmentary view, showing a freight car equipped with a modified form of coupler housing; and

FIGURE 10 is an inverted perspective view of a coupler housing component used in connection with the structure of FIGURE 9.

In FIGURE 1 two model railroad cars 10 and 12, having running gear 14 mounted on tracks 16, are shown connected to one another, through couplers which are of identical construction, and which are identically mounted. These couplers are shown in greater detail in FIGURES 3 to 8, inclusive. In the embodiment of FIG- URES 1 to 8, as shown in FIGURE 2, the couplers are attached to the undersides of the respective cars by means of headed screws 20.

The coupler 18 (see particularly FIGURE 4) includes a housing or draft gear box, which consists chiefly of two members, a partial housing 24 and a cover 26. The

partial housing 24 comprises a flat floor member 28 and upstanding notched walls 30, 32 and 34, which are located in out of the way places and have portions of different heights. The shorter portions support the cover 26, spacing it evenly from 28, while the longer portions of the walls 30, 32 and 34 fit into notches 36 and 38 of the cover to fix the housing base and the cover in a prescribed relation to one another, desirably in exact registration.

The base is provided with an upstanding post 40 wh ch serves as an interior spacer for the cover 26, and which performs other important functions that will be referred to presently. The post 40 is hollow, having a passage 42 through it which registers with a passage 44 of the same diameter formed in the cover 26. When the operating parts of the coupler have been fully assembled with the housing parts, the headed screw has its shank passed upward through the passages 42 and 44 for securing the coupler firmly to the underside of the floor portlon of a car. Since the post 40 serves as a spacer, the screw 20 can be turned securely home without distortion of the base floor 28, and therefore without liability of binding the movable parts of the coupler.

An upstanding, transverse lip 48 provided on the outer end of the cover 26 engages an end surface of the floor portion of the car, serving, with the screw 20, to determine and maintain a desired positioning and a desired orientation of the coupler relative to the car.

The relatively movable, operating parts of the coupler are few, simple and compact, and all are supported from within the housing and are operatively related to the housing.

The operating parts comprise a flat slotted shank 50 which rests upon the bottom 28 of the housing and carries at its outer free end a thin, fiat lip 52, the latter being desirably made integral with the shank 50. Resting upon the shank 50 is a similar shank 54 which carries at its outer end a C-shaped knuckle 56. The knuckle is made much thicker than the shank 54. It comprises an inner base portion 58 and an outer finger portion 60 which jointly define a side opening recess 62. The recess 62 is made wider than the thickness of the finger 60, so that the finger of an identical opposed coupler can be received in the recess 62 with capacity for substantial lost motion lengthwise of the train. The extremity of the finger 60 is formed with an inturned hook 64, cooperative with the corresponding hook of a cooperating coupler to prevent accidental uncoupling so long as the couplers are in traction.

Slots 66 and 68 are provided, respectively, in the shanks 50 and 54. The inner ends of the slots are comparatively narrow, but the outer ends of the slots are made wider than the diameter of the post 40, so that the shanks can move laterally, relative to the post, to a limited exent. The enlargements of the slots are of greater length than width, so that either shank can move inward relative to the post under certain operating conditions to be described.

A compression spring, shown herein as a helical spring 70, is lodged under compression in the slots 66 and 68, bearing at its outer end against the inner side of the post 40 and at its inner end in the narrower portions of the slots, against the inner ends of the slots. The spring 70 is of substantially less diameter than the least width of the slots and it is of less diameter than the combined thicknesses of the two shanks, but it is of substantially greater diameter than the thickness of a single shank. The spring is therefore always available to engage the inner end of either slot or simultaneously to engage the inner end of both slots, as required. The tendency of the spring is to urge the outer end-s of the slots toward, but not actually into engagement with, the outer side of the post 40 at all times.

A magnetic sensor and knuckle actuator 72, in the form of a curved finger of ferromagnetic material, is

.4 aflixed to the knuckle base 58 and extends downward through an arcuate slot 74 which is formed in an enlargement 76 provided at the outer end of shank 50. The upper end 78 of the actuator finger 72 is reduced in size and made rectangular in shape. It fits snugly in a rectangular slot 80 of the knuckle base 58. Although the actuator end 78 can be inserted manually in the slot 80', it is a tight enough fit to remain dependably in place. The area of the knuckle base 58 which immediately surrounds the slot is raised, however, and this raised portion can, if desired, be compressed after insertion of the actuator end 78, to increase the tightness of the fit.

The lip shank 50 has an abutment boss 82 formed on the right hand side of its lower face, as viewed in FIG- URE 4, which plays in a notch or opening 84 of the bottom member 28 and normally bears against the inner boundary or abutment wall 86 of said notch. The knuckle shank 54 has an abutment boss 88 formed on the left hand side of its upper face, as viewed in FIGURE 4, which plays in an opening 90 of the cover 26 and normally bears against the inner boundary of abutment wall 92 .of said opening. The bosses desirably lie within the normal horizontal bounds of their respective shanks, as shown.

The normal condition of opposed, unconnected couplers, when standing on straight track and not at the uncoupling station, is shown in FIGURE 5. The condition of the left hand coupler is shown in detail, but the con dition of the right hand coupler is identical. The boss 88 is being pressed against the abutment wall 92 by spring 70 and this tends to turn knuckle shank 54 counterclockwise. The boss 82 is being pressed against abutment wall 86 by spring 70 and this tends to turn lip shank 50 clockwise. The two shanks are held balanced against one another in the position shown in FIGURE 5, by engagement of the knuckle carried actuator 72 with the upper or right hand boundary of slot 74.

When the locomotive is hacked to press the knuckles of the opposed couplers against one another, the opposed outer sloping faces of the knuckles cause the knuckles t0 cam one another aside, with each knuckle swinging clockwise. This clears the way for the outer finger portion of each knuckle to enter the mouth formed between the knuckle finger 60 and the lip 52 of the opposing coupler. The knuckle fingers, as soon as they pass one another, spring back to their aligned positions, as shown in FIG URE 6, under the influence of the springs 70, so that each knuckle finger 60 becomes lodged in the recess 62 of the opposed coupler. There is still slack between the parts of the now interlinked couplers, because the locomotive has not yet been reversed to put the draft gear under traction. As soon as the draft gear is put under traction, the hooks 64 become overlapped and they remain so for as long as nothing is done to recreate slack. Under these conditions the couplers cannot become disengaged, even when the train is being drawn around sharp curves or past a magnetic uncoupler 94.

The magnetic uncoupler 94 may be a permanent magnet or electromagnet of known construction and characteristics, being magnetized to provide north and south poles at opposite sides, respectively, of the center line of the track, adjacent the rails, the two poles having substantial length and extending lengthwise of the uncoupler and parallel to the rails. When a pair of connected couplers is run backward or stopped in such a manner that a condition of slack is created, the hooks 64 are not overlapped (see FIGURE 6), so that the hooks may cross one another to free positions as shown in FIGURE 7. When the slack couplers are run into the uncoupling station, each knuckle is drawn outward, in a clockwise direction by its actuator so the hooks move to free positions, but each hook is still located within the mouth of the opposed coupler. Each knuckle 56, as it moves outward, engages the lip 52 of the opposed coupler and moves the lip counterclockwiseaway from the knuckle of its own coupler. Such relative movement is limited in each instance, however, by the length of the slot 74 through which the actuator 72 passes. The mouth of each coupler is widened sufiiciently to permit withdrawal of the opposed knuckle, but the lateral displacement of each knuckle is limited far short of the displacement which would occur if the knuckle were unobstructed.

Having placed the couplers at the uncoupling station in the condition of FIGURE 7, the locomotive is operated forward to separate the couplers completely. The knuckle of the car which has not been moved by this maneuver will, under the influence of the uncoupler, immediately move farther clockwise to an extreme limit of movement like that in which it is shown in FIGURE 8. The knuckle of the other car will do the same as soon as it is free to do so. If the moved coupler is pulled clear of the uncoupling station it will resume the condition in which it is shown in FIGURE 5, but when it is again backed into the uncoupling station it will assume the extreme condition shown in FIGURE 8.

The lip of each coupler will enter the mouth of the opposed coupler. Upon further backing the lips serve as pushers for pushing the detached car to a desired parking place removed from the uncoupling station.

As the couplers in the FIGURE 8 condition are moved clear of the uncoupling station by the backing of the locomotive, they tend to resume the aligned condition of FIGURE 5, but the lips obstruct and prevent a full return. Since the lips cannot interlock, the driving of the locomotive forward after parking of the detached car in any chosen location will separate the couplers, permitting both couplers to return to the FIGURE 5 condition automatically. This is the potentially automatic coupling condition. A mere subsequent pressing of the couplers together will automatically recouple the cars in the manner already described.

As will be seen, the complete coupler consists only of the six simple parts shown in FIGURE 4. Four of these, 24, 26, 50 and 54, may be die cast, molded or otherwise fabricated, while the spring 70 and the magnetic actuator clearly present no manufacturing problem. The making of the post 40 hollow enables the entire assembly to be attached to the associated car right in the middle of the operating field of the movable coupler parts. This form of connection is advantageous in very small scale equipment. The fact that a single, longitudinally disposed, compression spring, lodged in slots of the knuckle and lip shanks, serves adequately to urge alignment of both shanks is also an important point. The employment of a single spring together with the symmetrical locations of the abutments 82 and 88 assures proper balance.

The entire coupler makes a compact, sturdy and inexpensive unit which functions effectively in small equipment, and which can be readily and inexpensively replaced if replacement is required.

The modified coupler of FIGURES 9 and 10 is like the coupler of FIGURES 1 to 8 in its principle of operation, and the structures of the movable parts are the same. Only the coupler housing, and the means of attaching the coupler housing to the car, are altered.

The car 10a is shown upside down in FIGURE 9. In accordance with conventional practice, the body of car 10a consists of four principal parts. An integral body part 100 forms the top, ends and sides of the car, the sides being resilient, normally bowed inward slightly along their lower margins, and adapted, through their resilience, to retain the floor parts in place. The sides and ends of the member 100 provide a continuous shoulder 102 against which a plastic, rectangular floor plate 104 continuously abuts. The floor plate 104 has two bored studs 106 (one shown) formed integral with it. The studs 106 provide mounts for the trucks and serve as jigs, being passed through a stiff rectangular metallic member 108 and through a skeletal retaining member 110. The member includes what may be termed a central spine 112 and spaced ribs 114 all of the same length, which ribs extend in opposite directions from the spine. The ribs are long enough to straighten the car sides, placing the car sides under elastic deformation and serving by the engagement of the rib ends with the car sides frictionally to retain the member 110, and through it the members 108 and 104 firmly and securely, but removably, in place.

The member 110 differs from the conventional structure in the fact that it has built into it at each end, as an integral part, a portion 26a which is the substantial equivalent of the coupler housing member 26 of FIG- URE 4. This portion includes an abutment post 40a which may be solid, there being no need to pass an attaching screw through the post. It also includes a cut-out 90a in a floor portion 28a, providing an abutment shoulder 92a for cooperating with the abutment pin of the knuckle shank.

The knuckle and lip shanks are successively placed around the abutment post 40a, and the spring is put in place as before. A cover 24a has an opening 44a for the reception of a reduced upper end of post 40a, and an opening 84a which provides an abutment surface 86a for cooperation with the abutment pin of the lip shank.

The housing part 26a has side walls 115 which have detent lugs 116 formed on their outer surfaces. The cover 26a has resilient side walls 118 which are adapted to be snapped into place over the lugs 116, the walls 118 being formed with cut-outs 120 appropriate in size and location to receive the lugs 116, and thereby to hold the cover snugly in place. The lower surfaces of the lugs 116 (upper as viewed in FIGURE 9) slope outward so they may spread the cover walls 118 as the cover is put into place. The other faces of the lugs 116, however, form abrupt shoulders for locking the cover against accidental dislodgement.

With the organization shown in FIGURES 9 and 10, all the car parts, including the body, the floor members and the two couplers at opposite ends of the car can be completely assembled without resort to the use of any tool, and they can be similarly taken apart when the need arises.

We have described what we believe to be the best embodiments of our invention. We do not wish, however, to be confined to the embodiments shown, but what we desire to cover by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A coupler for model railroad cars adapted to be applied in a prescribed fashion to the end of a car, so that when two cars so equipped are brought together end to end the opposed couplers will automatically interlock and will normally remain interlocked, such coupler comprising, in combination,

(a) a partial housing having directly opposed upper and lower, generally flat, spaced, horizontal members and a fixed, centrally disposed, vertically extending abutment post,

(b) a pair of thin, flat, superposed and normally registering slotted shanks, the outer ends of whose slots are enlarged to receive the abutment post freely and are of greater length than the longitudinal dimension of the post, so that the shanks can move lengthwise and laterally to limited extents relative to the post,

(c) a C-shaped knuckle unitary with one of the shanks at the outer end thereof, adapted to interlock with a like knuckle of another coupler,

(d) a lip unitary with the outer end of the second shank and disposed opposite the knuckle, and spaced from the knuckle to define a mouth for receiving the knuckle of a cooperating coupler,

(e) a single, longitudinally disposed, compression spring maintained under compression in the slots of the shanks, said spring hearing at its outer end against the inner side of the post and adapted at its inner end to bear against the inner boundary faces of both shank slots and tending to urge the shanks inward,

(f) abutment means fixed on the respective shanks, one on the knuckle carrying shank at one side of the spring, and the other on the lip carrying shank at the other side of the spring, and

(g) fixed abutment means on the housing cooperative, respectively, with the abutment means on the knuckle carrying shank and with the abutment means on the lip carrying shank for opposing longitudinal movements of said shanks in response to spring thrust, and causing the shanks to be swung scissors fashion toward one another until arrested in a balanced condition in directly opposed relation to one another, with the lip and knuckle properly positioned and properly spaced for automatic coupling.

2. A coupler as set forth in claim 1 in which the abutment means on the upper shank extends upward from within the normal horizontal area of the shank body and the cooperating abutment means of the partial housing is provided by the upper horizontal member thereof, and the abutment means on the lower shank extends downward from the shank within the normal horizontal area of the shank body, and the cooperating abutment means of the partial housing is provided by the lower horizontal member thereof.

3. A coupler as set forth in claim 1 in which the post is made hollow for the reception of a through fastener, whereby the coupler may be secured to a car within the operating area of the coupler shanks.

4. A coupler as set forth in claim 3 in which one of the housing members includes an outturned lip disposed for extensive engagement with an end surface of the car.

5. A coupler as set forth in claim 1 in which the knuckle includes an outer finger portion which bounds and partially defines an open sided recess for receiving the finger of a like opposing coupler, which recess has a breadth greater than the thickness of such finger portion, and in which the finger portion terminates in an inwardly directed, coupling maintaining hook portion, there being room for the hooks of engaged identical couplers to clear one another longitudinally when the locomotive is hacked or stopped abruptly.

6. A coupler as set forth in claim 1 in which an uncoupling actuator is provided which forms a fixed, unitary part of the knuckle shank and extends downward therefrom, and the lip shank is formed with a slot of limited length through which the uncoupling actuator extends, so that after the knuckle, in moving toward uncoupling position, has widened the coupler mouth a predetermined amount, further widening of the mouth is positively prevented and the lip must move in unison with the knuckle during any further movement of the knuckle in the same direction.

7. A coupler pair of the kind set forth in claim 6 in which movements of the knuckles of two engaged couplers toward uncoupling positions at an uncoupling station are limited in each instance by the engagement of a knuckle with the lip of the opposed coupler, after the lost motion between knuckle and lip has been exhausted, but in which there is much greater freedom of movement of a knuckle, in unison with its associated lip, in the uncoupling direction after the couplers have been separated, whereby the lips may be forced at an uncoupling station to move over into line with the opposed coupler months for use as pushers during delayed uncoupling.

8. Model railroad equipment comprising cars provided with couplers as set forth in claim 7 in which the uncoupling actuators are magnetically responsive members, and magnetic means is provided at the uncoupling station for yieldingly urging the actuators in uncoupling direction, the construction and arrangement being such that the couplers may be yieldingly swung limited distances to permit separation of the cars, and may, after separation of the cars, be swung much farther in the same direction, by the magnetic means at the uncoupling station, to align each lip with the mouth of the opposed coupler for use as a pusher.

9. A coupler for model railroad cars as set forth in claim 1 in which one of the partial housing members is made integral with a major structural component of the car, and the other is a small detachable cover individually covering the specific coupler parts in which at least one of the partial housing members includes resiliently deformable side wall parts, the side wall parts of the two housing members being constructed with camming and interlocking formations, the construction and arrangement being such that pressing together of the partial housing members causes first a deformation of said side walls and then a snapping together of the partial housing members in normally fixed, but conveniently separable, relation to one another.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,868,393 1/1959 Bailey. 3,397,483 8/1968 Lingard 462l6 3,408,769 11/1968 Ernst 46218 DRAYTON E. HOFFMAN, Primary Examiner US Cl. X.R. 462l6 

